Every now and then, at the end of my acting class in college, someone would stand up and proclaim "Today was my failure day," to which the class would respond with a rousing round of applause.
Permission to fail gave us the freedom to make bold choices (a phrase we heard all the time from our teacher. "Make a bold choice!" "Make a bolder choice!" "Make a bold gesture!" - nobody was allowed to timidly raise their hand in class). It's OK to risk if it's OK to fail.
I have proclaimed today a failure day. I failed at shopping. I failed at mailing Christmas cards (mailed all the ones WITHOUT stamps, not the ones with stamps. Discovered 5 hours later). I failed at singing.
It seemed that each thing I tried to step out and get done, didn't work out quite right. I got pretty frustrated with myself.
In declaring a Failure Day, I'm trying to give myself the grace to acknowledge the failures and move on. I was beginning to get out of this funk I've been in for the past, oh, 5 months. I can't let one day reverse the tide.
Tomorrow I am taking The May Queen to see the stage musical Mary Poppins.
After today's Failure Day, I'm hoping tomorrow will be Practically Perfect in Every Way.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
14 comments:
And it will be.
I hope so, too.
Have fun! I hope some of the magic rubs off on you.
Oooh, I LIKE Failure Day! But don't be too hard on yourself. I haven't even tried to mail greeting cards or even bake cookies yet.
I think I need to be more positive and not let a few tiny little failures make a whole day a failure. Too often I look back and reflect on the day and decide the whole day was a failure when it really wasn't that bad. I must start a more positive outlook.
I do like the idea of giving myself permission to fail once in a while. Less pressure that way. And we do learn the most from our failures, don't we?
Hope you enjoyed the show with Mayqueen!
I like the idea of failure day, though it feels like I may need to declare entire failure weeks at times...
I hope the last couple of days have been full of win. Or at lease wine.
I always liked Thomas Edison's response to a reporter on his failure to invent a working lightbulb . . . yet.
“How does it feel to have failed seven hundred times?” The great inventor responded, “I have not failed seven hundred times. I have not failed once. I have succeeded in proving that those seven hundred ways will not work. When I have eliminated the ways that will not work, I will find the way that will work.”
another day a new chance.
Most awesome! After all, there is no such thing as "perfection" in nature... it is entirely a human-invented concept.
Permission to fail... what a wonderful freedom that is. And, it also provides us with the opportunity to LEARN!
xoxo CGF
I love the Failure Day concept, how freeing! PM, as long as your daughter feels loved and safe, none of that other stuff matters. Enjoy Mary Poppins and have a very happy Christmas!
I'm hoping it was perfect and that you have a wonderful holiday.
I like the idea of a "failure" day and how it can set you free to try again.
Your blog is wonderful and I am glad that I found it through a very circuitous route, but I'll be back.
I wish you joy in the coming year (I can't back wish for last year!),
Sharon Lovejoy Writes from Sunflower House and a Little Green Island
I love this idea. I may have to add vodka to my FAILURE DAY. But am totally stealing the idea.... and btw. I would read your whiny navel gazing writing anytime. ;-)
Linda
Wishing you good days ahead for 2011! Hope you are well.
I know this is an old post, but I think that perhaps starting this in my house would be good for the six-year-old perfectionist I live with.
Post a Comment